Can Wearable Sensors Provide Accurate and Reliable 3D Tibiofemoral Angle Estimates during Dynamic Actions?

The ability to accurately measure tibiofemoral angles during various dynamic activities is of clinical interest. The purpose of this study was to determine if inertial measurement units (IMUs) can provide accurate and reliable angle estimates during dynamic actions. A tuned quaternion conversion (TQC) method tuned to dynamics actions was used to calculate Euler angles based on IMU data, and these calculated angles were compared to a motion capture system (our “gold” standard) and a commercially available sensor fusion algorithm. Nine healthy athletes were instrumented with APDM Opal IMUs and asked to perform nine dynamic actions; five participants were used in training the parameters of the TQC method, with the remaining four being used to test validity. Accuracy was based on the root mean square error (RMSE) and reliability was based on the Bland–Altman limits of agreement (LoA). Improvement across all three orthogonal angles was observed as the TQC method was able to more accurately (lower RMSE) and more reliably (smaller LoA) estimate an angle than the commercially available algorithm. No significant difference was observed between the TQC method and the motion capture system in any of the three angles (p < 0.05). It may be feasible to use this method to track tibiofemoral angles with higher accuracy and reliability than the commercially available sensor fusion algorithm.